Editor's note
Forestry has been looking, not listening.
Visual remote sensing (drones, LiDAR, multispectral satellite) has been the dominant story for a decade and the work is real. But it has crowded out an entire other layer of forest data, the layer that only travels as sound. Microphones do not replace cameras. They reach the data cameras never could.
Some forest signals only emit themselves acoustically. Pesticide stress in ant colonies, drought stress in trees, soil-health signal from earthworm density. None of that shows up in pixels. It shows up in the audio.
The interesting question isn't whether someone builds a forest microphone. It is who builds the analytics layer that integrates raw forest audio into the existing visual stack, and whether the satellite-image incumbents extend into audio or a new player owns it.
Axel
WHAT GOT ME THINKING
SLU Detects Pesticide Exposure in Wood Ant Colonies by Sound
SLU professor Jonatan Klaminder recorded sound inside red wood ant nests exposed to low doses of imidacloprid, the neonicotinoid pesticide linked to bee collapse. Exposed ants became more active and louder (a nicotine-like response, fatal at higher doses). The same group earlier showed trees emit ultrasound when drought-stressed, opening passive acoustic monitoring of forest stress. IVL has just launched a six-farm pilot recording earthworm sounds in topsoil to assess soil health, comparing regenerative versus conventional fields.
Axel's notes: Bioacoustics is one of the most quietly interesting frontiers I've been tracking. The premise is simple: living systems emit sound, those sounds carry information about stress, contamination and ecological state, and microphones cost almost nothing compared to drones, satellites or LiDAR rigs. We're early enough in this field that the basic empirical work is still landing.
What the SLU study shows is that listening can replace digging. Klaminder's own framing: the standard problem for soil researchers is that you have to destroy what you study, and microphones in an ant nest don't. The same group has already shown trees emit ultrasound under drought, and IVL is now turning the same approach on earthworm soundscapes for soil health, which suggests this is a method shift, not an isolated curiosity.
Zoom out and the field is moving fast everywhere. Tel Aviv University documented tomato plants emitting ultrasonic clicks when drought-stressed, with follow-up work showing moths actually listen and pick which plants to lay eggs on. Each species, each type of stress, has its own acoustic signature, and machine-learning models can already classify the problem from the audio alone.
For forestry, this is the start of a non-invasive monitoring layer that runs passively, day and night, without drone overflights or coring. EcoVibes is already working the species-ID side from forest soundscapes. The next step is reading stress, contamination and ecological condition from the same audio, and the answer might come from the ground up rather than the canopy down.
AirForestry Coordinates SEK 48M Vinnova PADA Consortium Spanning Forestry Majors, Tele2 and IKEA
AirForestry moves from product validation to consortium lead, coordinating Vinnova's SEK 48M PADA program (Paradigm shift through data-driven, autonomous precision forestry) under the Advanced Digitalization track. Co-partners: Skogforsk, SLU, SCA Skog, Sveaskog, Stora Enso Skog, Holmen Skog, Tele2 and IKEA. The brief is to link the forestry value chain end-to-end and replace ground-based thinning machines with drones.
Metsä CEO Vanhanen and Stora Enso's Lielahti Frame AI as Baseline Infrastructure at Pulp & Beyond
At Pulp & Beyond in Helsinki (April 14 to 16), Metsä Group CEO Jussi Vanhanen and Stora Enso's Matti Lielahti called AI baseline infrastructure for pulp and paper operations, not optional. Concrete use cases on the floor: predictive maintenance on production lines, process optimization across pulping stages, and knowledge capture as senior operators retire. Mala Valroy of Sweden's Industrial Fund framed it as the productivity-gap lever.
Umeå-Based Biodiv Raises SEK 2.75M to Scale CLIMB Biodiversity Quantification Platform
Umeå-based Biodiv has raised SEK 2.75M from PartnerInvest Norr and angel Kalle Nilvér (GoClimate co-founder, ex-Booli, ex-Sensebit). Founded 2025 by operators from Ecogain, Arboreal and Bufferleaf, the startup digitalises the open CLIMB metric (built by Ecogain plus 11 industry actors, open-sourced 2023) into a platform that quantifies biodiversity impact about 10x faster than manual methods.
Mongabay Names AI Alerts, Satellite Internet, and Mineral Demand Among Ten Forces Reshaping Forests
Mongabay's April scan lists ten forces reshaping forests through the early 2030s. Tech anchors two: AI-classified satellite alerts giving near real-time deforestation tracking, and satellite internet letting illegal loggers, poachers and miners coordinate inside the Amazon. Other forces named: declining public aid, expanding carbon markets, Indigenous direct financing, and critical-mineral demand pushing into forests.